Description
Classic Editor is an official plugin maintained by the WordPress team that restores the previous (“classic”) WordPress editor and the “Edit Post” screen. It makes it possible to use plugins that extend that screen, add old-style meta boxes, or otherwise depend on the previous editor.
Classic Editor is an official WordPress plugin, and will be fully supported and maintained until at least 2022, or as long as is necessary.
At a glance, this plugin adds the following:
- Administrators can select the default editor for all users.
- Administrators can allow users to change their default editor.
- When allowed, the users can choose which editor to use for each post.
- Each post opens in the last editor used regardless of who edited it last. This is important for maintaining a consistent experience when editing content.
In addition, the Classic Editor plugin includes several filters that let other plugins control the settings, and the editor choice per post and per post type.
By default, this plugin hides all functionality available in the new block editor (“Gutenberg”).
Screenshots
Admin settings on the Settings -> Writing screen. 
User settings on the Profile screen. Visible when the users are allowed to switch editors. 
"Action links" to choose alternative editor. Visible when the users are allowed to switch editors. 
Link to switch to the block editor while editing a post in the classic editor. Visible when the users are allowed to switch editors. 
Link to switch to the classic editor while editing a post in the block editor. Visible when the users are allowed to switch editors. 
Network settings to select the default editor for the network and allow site admins to change it. 
The "Switch to classic editor" link.
FAQ
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Default settings
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When activated this plugin will restore the previous (“classic”) WordPress editor and hide the new block editor (“Gutenberg”).
These settings can be changed at the Settings => Writing screen. -
Default settings for network installation
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There are two options:
- When network-activated this plugin will set the classic editor as default and prevent site administrators and users from changing editors.
The settings can be changed and default network-wide editor can be selected on the Network Settings screen. - When not network-activated each site administrator will be able to activate the plugin and choose options for their users.
- When network-activated this plugin will set the classic editor as default and prevent site administrators and users from changing editors.
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Cannot find the “Switch to classic editor” link
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It is in the main block editor menu, see this screenshot.
Reviews
දෙසැම්බර් 29, 2021
Really, this is the classic WYSIWYG. I understand the block editor can be great for the general public but, as a from-scratch theme developer who crafts bespoke themes for clients, I like to have control over the content that gets rendered, and this classic editor outputs no strange blocks, classes, elements and all those bells and whistles of Gutenberg.
Hopefully this gets forked someday and I don't need to move to other CMS. This classic editor made WordPress what it is and, if it's gone, I would need to migrate all my sites to something else having a simple WYSIWYG editor.
Having the block editor as default in new WordPress installations is okay, but would be good to have an option to choose editor instead of installing this plugin.
දෙසැම්බර් 20, 2021
I like WordPress and innovative solutions but obviously, Guttenberg is not one of them, at least for power users or productive purposes. I hope that WordPress understands the user's demands and does not kill this practical cure for Guttenberg!
දෙසැම්බර් 8, 2021
I'm a web designer/developer who builds lots of sites for non-profits. Those sites are usually maintained by the non-profit's volunteers, who tend to be seniors. The similarity of WP Classic Editor to Microsoft Word makes it easy for my clients to deal with volunteer turnover.
If WordPress Classic is end-of-lifed in 2022 as planned, WordPress will become unsuitable for a particular demographic of website owners.
In my opinion, this is an essential plugin. It works well and people need it. Please keep it.
දෙසැම්බර් 6, 2021
This is an extremely useful plugin for our organisation.
We have numerous staff members responsible for updating information on their own webpages, and few of them are comfortable with the complexities and options of the full block editor. Classic Editor means that they can quickly and confidently change opening times, requirements, etc.
Other staff members would be all too keen to experiment with their pages, and we appreciate the consistency over look and feel that Classic Editor gives.
We hope that it will be maintained long-term.
දෙසැම්බර් 3, 2021
When you don't want to (or can't) use Gutenberg, this plugin is a life-saver.
දෙසැම්බර් 2, 2021
Both as a developer and as a user, I've grown to hate the block editor. Actual content editing has become a lot more cumbersome with it and has made me dread using WordPress. Things that took me mere minutes as a theme or plugin developer are now either impossible or take hours of reading through horribly lacking documentation and lots of blog posts elsewhere on the web. The resulting HTML with its horrendously long class names, convoluted element structure, and the near 8kB of (entirely unused) inline CSS on every pageload is an eyesore and an insult to efficiency. The more I use Gutenberg, the more I hate it, and I have literally nothing positive to say about it.
If it wasn't for the Classic Editor plugin, I would have abandoned WordPress altogether by now and gone looking for another job.
Contributors & Developers
“Classic Editor” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
“Classic Editor” has been translated into 66 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.
Translate “Classic Editor” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.6.2
- Fixed bug that was preventing saving of the last used editor.
1.6.1
- Fixed a warning on the block editor based widgets screen.
- Fixed use of a deprecated filter.
1.6
- Updated for WordPress 5.5.
- Fixed minor issues with calling deprecated functions, needlessly registering uninstall hook, and capitalization of some strings.
1.5
- Updated for WordPress 5.2 and Gutenberg 5.3.
- Enhanced and fixed the “open posts in the last editor used to edit them” logic.
- Fixed adding post state so it can easily be accessed from other plugins.
1.4
- On network installations removed the restriction for only network activation.
- Added support for network administrators to choose the default network-wide editor.
- Fixed the settings link in the warning on network About screen.
- Properly added the “Switch to classic editor” menu item to the block editor menu.
1.3
- Fixed removal of the “Try Gutenberg” dashboard widget.
- Fixed condition for displaying of the after upgrade notice on the “What’s New” screen. Shown when the classic editor is selected and users cannot switch editors.
1.2
- Fixed switching editors from the Add New (post) screen before a draft post is saved.
- Fixed typo that was appending the edit URL to the
classic-editorquery var. - Changed detecting of WordPress 5.0 to not use version check. Fixes a bug when testing 5.1-alpha.
- Changed the default value of the option to allow users to switch editors to false.
- Added disabling of the Gutenberg plugin and lowered the required WordPress version to 4.9.
- Added
classic_editor_network_default_settingsfilter.
1.1
Fixed a bug where it may attempt to load the block editor for post types that do not support editor when users are allowed to switch editors.
1.0
- Updated for WordPress 5.0.
- Changed all “Gutenberg” names/references to “block editor”.
- Refreshed the settings UI.
- Removed disabling of the Gutenberg plugin. This was added for testing in WordPress 4.9. Users who want to continue following the development of Gutenberg in WordPress 5.0 and beyond will not need another plugin to disable it.
- Added support for per-user settings of default editor.
- Added support for admins to set the default editor for the site.
- Added support for admins to allow users to change their default editor.
- Added support for network admins to prevent site admins from changing the default settings.
- Added support to store the last editor used for each post and open it next time. Enabled when users can choose default editor.
- Added “post editor state” in the listing of posts on the Posts screen. Shows the editor that will be opened for the post. Enabled when users can choose default editor.
- Added
classic_editor_enabled_editors_for_postandclassic_editor_enabled_editors_for_post_typefilters. Can be used by other plugins to control or override the editor used for a particular post of post type. - Added
classic_editor_plugin_settingsfilter. Can be used by other plugins to override the settings and disable the settings UI.
0.5
- Updated for Gutenberg 4.1 and WordPress 5.0-beta1.
- Removed some functionality that now exists in Gutenberg.
- Fixed redirecting back to the classic editor after looking at post revisions.
0.4
- Fixed removing of the “Try Gutenberg” call-out when the Gutenberg plugin is not activated.
- Fixed to always show the settings and the settings link in the plugins list table.
- Updated the readme text.
0.3
- Updated the option from a checkbox to couple of radio buttons, seems clearer. Thanks to @designsimply for the label text suggestions.
- Some general updates and cleanup.
0.2
- Update for Gutenberg 1.9.
- Remove warning and automatic deactivation when Gutenberg is not active.
0.1
Initial release.